The three suppliers chosen by the Hairy Bikers for their Go Local TV series have all seen a massive increase in demand following their appearance on the show last Friday.
The Hairy Bikers Go Local saw the much-loved duo matching up Michelin Star restaurants with suppliers in their local areas, with the boys attempting to impress Alex Nietosvuori and Ally Thompson of Hjem in Wall, Northumberland. After sampling courses from the holders of the county's first Michelin Star, the boys made a three-course meal for the couple at their base in Healey Hall with salmon caught in Berwick, a pork stew using kimchi from Wallsend and a dessert from a Morpeth-based chocolatier.
And all three businesses have seen a massive increase in demand since appearing on the show, with one of them "receiving orders from parts of the country they'd never have got to without the programme." The first supplier to appear was River Tweed Wild Salmon, the last remaining commercial netting station on the Tweed aiming to keep the history and heritage of a tradition that dates back more than a millennium.
Read more: 'Keep them coming boys' - Hairy Bikers fans speak out as series comes to an end
Though Si and Dave didn't manage to catch their own salmon, they bought one from the business and made a watercress-gin cured gravlax, with Alex Nietosvuori saying: "I love this kind of food, but it's hard to incorporate to an 18-course menu." Nevertheless, Michael Hindhaugh enjoyed hosting the Hairy Bikers, saying: "The two lads were great fun and they come across as down to earth on the TV programmes and that's exactly how they were."
And he says there has been a "great flurry of interest" since the programme aired, not only in buying their wild salmon and sea trout, but going on one of the company's experience days, where guests have the chance to catch their own fish before taking it home or to a restaurant to be prepared.
Much like Hjem in the village of Wall, the second stop was close to Hadrian's Wall too in Wallsend. Belle and Herbs fermentary in Rising Sun Park was started during the pandemic by friends Sam Storey and Pan Phyu Phyu Hmwe.
Describing fermenting food as the next "megatrend", Belle and Herbs make fermented foods using fresh fruit and vegetables, with their take on kimchi being used in the Bikers' pork and kimchi stew. Si and Dave made the spicy Korean cabbage dish with Pan and Sam, one of several products that they sell through their online shop.
And Sam says the response has been "crazy" since appearing on the show. He said: "We've had a massive uplift in business, I'd say about probably 500% this week."
Before setting up Belle and Herbs with Pan, Sam worked with North East universities on creating food suitable for those who had recovered from mouth and neck cancer but had limited capacity to eat. He had been about to open a centre in Whitley Bay in 2019 and hopes to work with that alongside his burgeoning fermenting business again in the future.
For the dessert of Aztec chocolate avocado mousse, Si and Dave called to Morpeth to visit Vicky Armitage, who founded Meraki Cacao in 2020. Vicky makes chocolate-like bars inspired by her travels with cacao nibs and palmyra nectar from Sri Lanka, and says that the show has given her hundreds of new customers.
Vicky said: "The reaction has been unbelievable, I've got hundreds of orders which I'm getting my way through at the moment, it's absolutely amazing. People will have to bear with me but they will get their orders out!
"I'm so chuffed and I hope everybody likes the bars when they get them. It's been from all over, different parts of the country I would have never got to without the programme, so I'm really grateful for the exposure, really."
Following the show, Hjem ordered some of the wild salmon from the River Tweed Wild Salmon Company. Ally Thompson, restaurant manager, said: "Both Alex and I really enjoyed the dishes which Si and Dave served up to us at Healey Hall and we were intrigued and impressed with all the North East suppliers they'd hunted out for us.
"Using the best local produce we can find is at the very heart of what we do at Hjem - so it's always a delight when new suppliers are brought to our attention... and even more so when it's the Hairy Bikers doing it!"
Fans expressed their disappointment that the series had come to an end, but it's likely to be the only one of Go Local. Si and Dave revealed on their podcast Hairy Bikers Agony Uncles that at the very least, they would do the show differently were they to make it now.
Dave Myers said: "A lot of the food was quite extravagant and I think we have to be realistic that it was 18 months ago and it shows what a different place we are economically in the country. I think we would have reined it in a bit with respect to the viewers."
Si, who made an impassioned speech at a cost of living rally in Newcastle in October, added: "It's a very different country to what it is 18 months ago, people are properly up against it."
The recipes from the Hairy Bikers Go Local are available on the BBC Good Food website. All eight episodes of the series, which ended with the visit to Hjem, are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
What did you think of the Hairy Bikers Go Local? Let us know!
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